Lydia

“[God] seems so much 'for us' these days. I have not lost one nameable thing by putting her and our whole affair in the simplest way possible into His hands. There has been no careful planning, no worrying over details in the matter. I have simply recognized love in me, declared it to her, and to Him, and as frankly as I could told Him I wanted His way in it. There has been no leading thus far to engagement, but the symptoms of a beautiful courtship prevail - not, perhaps, a routine one, or a 'normal' one, but a good one, nevertheless, and, withal, a deep sense that it is God-directed.”
― Elisabeth Elliot, Shadow of the Almighty: The Life and Testament of Jim Elliot

“The kindness which consists in upholding a woman of the town against a citizen, the police agent against the mayor, the man who is down against the man who is up in the world, is what I call false kindness. That is the sort of kindness which disorganizes society. Good God! it is very easy to be kind; the difficulty lies in being just.”
― Victor Hugo, Les Miserables

“It is the heart that is not yet sure of its God that is afraid to laugh in His presence.”
― George MacDonald, An Anthology: 365 Readings

“He was thinking, no doubt, that this man, whose name is Jean Valjean, had his misfortune only too vividly present in his mind; that the best thing was to divert him from it, and to make him believe, if only momentarily, that he was a person like any other, by treating him just in his ordinary way. Is not this indeed, to understand charity well?”
― Victor Hugo